IDEAS

There have been a lot of launches of “mobile payment solutions” since MPESA’s success in Kenya. There was one launch in Zimbabwe and couple in South Africa between 2009 and 2011. With the exception of one bank in South Africa, most of the “mobile payment solution” launches have been greeted with lukewarm reception from the market.

1. Your company is losing money – your business is probably spending money on some products, roles, business units and projects that do not necessarily contribute to the strategy. When Steve Jobs rejoined Apple after his forced exile, Apple were a couple of days away from bankruptcy. His first approach was simple firstly to define Apples strategy/mission which was “We sell consumer products and professionally oriented products and we need a desktop offering and a portable offering in each of the two categories”.

1. Online Advertising – Advertising is going digital (online and mobile). i. People are spending more and more time online via their mobile devices and normal desktops. Activities like reading magazines and newspapers are all moving online at a rapid pace. ii. Marketers are realising that the “Pay per click” concept is much more scientific compared to ads aired on TV, radio and print because you can measure the ROI on advertising more accurately.”

1. Save on hardware costs – you don’t have to procure servers to host applications and databases because your service providers hosts everything on your behalf 2. You don’t have to go through the bureaucracy of requesting for Capex.